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Mesa photographer’s stunning work on display
BY SRIANTHI PERERA
Tribune Contributor
Kerrick James, a Mesa photographer and travel writer known for his work locally and internationally, is featured in a show presented by Art Intersection of Gilbert.
“Arizona Odyssey: Forty Years of Roaming for Beauty,” displaying 66 images, runs through March 5 in Gallery 4 at HD SOUTH, the Home of the Gilbert Historical Museum.
James is the ultimate explorer. He has traveled the length and breadth of Arizona, looking for the rare and fleeting, the unusual and the iconic to photograph and introduce to the world.
The photographs on display were taken between 1977 and May 2021 and the presentation is as noteworthy as the content.
The photographs were printed by Artisan Colour of Scottsdale on Fuji PhotoFlex paper, then face-mounted to optically clear plexiglass acrylic and affixed to a museum mount. They seem to float off the wall.
A few of the images were printed on brushed aluminum, rendering the highlights both reflective and tactile.
James depicts iconic landscapes, ephemeral weather and celestial phenomena, billion-year-old rocks and medusa-like saguaros. There are cowboys and horses, Hopi seeKERRICK page 13
Kerrick James stands near his photo of a cave in Black Canyon that he called “Emerald Cave” because of the brilliant green hues. Arizona Odyssey, at HD SOUTH, celebrates the beauty of Arizona through the Mesa photographer’s lens. (Srianthi Perera/
Tribune Contirbutor)
Mesa artist Susan Paige felt women artists were going unnoticed, so she organized a show at OneOhOne gallery in
BY ALLISON BROWN Tribune Staff Writer
They say that everything gets better with age and longtime Mesa artist Susan Paige can attest to that.
Through OneOhOne gallery in Mesa, she organized the “Contemporary Wise Women Artists” show to highlight women who have been influential in the art world but have gone largely unnoticed.
It’s on display from through Jan. 29 at the downtown Mesa gallery, 101 W. Main St.
“I just felt like these women are kind of unrecognized,” Paige said.
“We’re not in the famous galleries. We’re not in a really successful Scottsdale gallery, but we still sell our art and we’re successful. I just thought of the idea of wise women and all of the knowledge we have from all of our life experiences kind of giving a different perspective in art. Everyone in the show is over 65. Our oldest one is 79 and she does metal work.”
In the show are seven women: Paige, Elvie Becker, Joni Anderson, Linda Jones, Kathy McClure, Loralee Stickel-Harris and Diane Black.
The exhibition will feature mediums like metal work, mixed medium abstract pieces, oil art, watercolors, acrylics and photography.
Each artist brings her own subject matter, too, from abstract to super realism, and she specifically chose them to have a variety of work.
“Everybody’s just a little different. The reason I call it ‘Contemporary Wise Women,’ is you can just see that they’re very accomplished and can incorporate their personality into their art,” Paige said.
“So, the more experience, the more time you spend on your art, the longer you’re with it, it brings you more wisdom in how you execute the art, so the viewer understands what you’re saying.”
If art imitates life, these women have plenty of experiences and knowledge to express in their work. Paige said the artists have been working on their craft for so long, they have found their niche and honed their skills in that area. She adds that the wisdom that comes with aging shines through their art.
“Women with age bring experience, knowledge and, hopefully, good judgment,” Black said.
These artists have been taking art classes for 10 or 20 years or have a degree in art.
A 40-year artist, Paige earned an art degree and has managed several galleries in Phoenix and Chicago. It could be said that she’s had a successful art career, but she calls herself and the other women “silent artists.”
Their pieces may not be in large galleries, but they are in homes and businesses.
and Navajo dancers, adventurers and musicians. There are also images of Route 66. Some of the places are now lost to flood or time.
“We have such a wide variety of landscape and culture. I could’ve done just landscapes but I wanted to have a mix of people and culture,” he said.
“Photography has led me to six continents and many locales that I dreamed of as a boy growing in Kansas and California…Venice to Patagonia, Glacier Bay to China, Scotland to Costa Rica, and so many more,” he said. “But beyond the natural and cultural beauty, it is the people I’ve met because of choosing travel journalism as a career that are the heart of my trips and my memories. I always feel that there are more new and delightful images to be made, and more fascinating people to meet and learn from.”
One such trip has carved an indelible mark in his memory.
In 1995, the Bureau of Reclamation opened up Black Canyon, (which has Hoover Dam as its highest point) to public recreation.
James was assigned by Arizona Highways magazine to create a cover feature and while exploring the 11-mile stretch of the canyon that runs north to SOUTH above Willow Beach, he discovered a “sea cave” space on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.
“This was in mid-summer, and I found that for a short time each afternoon, the angled rays of the lowering sun would reflect off the bottom of the cave, through the clear cold water, and create the effect of
PAIGE from page 12
Stickel-Harris is a 79-year-old sculptor who does metal work, something she only started 10 years ago after taking a class at the Mesa Arts Center.
Paige added that it’s “pretty amazing” that Stickel-Harris took on this new hobby in her late 60s and is still welding and making art pieces. Stickel-Harris said her art reflects her life.
“My metal art has no boundaries, which, in my late 70s, is how I approach life,” Stickel-Harris said. “I weld and bend metal, which depicts to the viewer both flexibility and strength which comes with many life experiences.”
Paige said she chose the women after Two river guides admire the view downstream from the Nankoweap granary trail. This is one of the best Colorado River views in the
Grand Canyon. (Courtesy of Kerrick James.) his images, taken during weeklong trips or just single day backpack hikes. A series of noteworthy photographs came from a 2013 trip with friends to Havasu Falls.
“I carried my inflatable kayak all down there and had my friends kayak at Havasu Falls and Mooney falls and Havasu Creek,” he said. “I think it was the first time somebody had kayaked there, ever. I got some really great questions from people who were confused.”
In Havasupai, he photographed a hiker from Los Angeles who happened to be there. A flash flood in 2008 changed the path of Havasu Creek and the place
green glowing water. I felt it was like floating on an emerald so I captioned my images for their story as Emerald Cave,” he said.
The name took hold and is known as such today. The story ran in September 1997 and is his favorite of 13 cover images for Arizona Highways.
The Grand Canyon features in many of is no more.
“It’s now as dry as a bone, but before that it was like a little piece of Hawaii,” he said.
Born in Kansas and raised in California, James studied photography and fine arts at Arizona State University and graduated in 1982. He has lived in Arizona since 1990.
Alan Fitzgerald, owner of Art Intersec-
following their careers. With StickelHarris, there is a mutual respect for their work. Paige said each has proven to be accomplished women and artists, which is why she thinks they deserve a show to themselves.
So, she made it happen. Paige said she rents out the OhOneOh gallery for shows that she wants to put together. Then, she single-handedly organizes the exhibit from start to finish.
“I rent it periodically and curate exhibits,” she said. “So, this is the one that I’m curating for January. I come up with my own theme and then I find the artists, put
13
tion, has shown James’s work in his gallery earlier, but not in a solo show.
“His work, I think, brings to all of us the vision of Arizona,” Fitzgerald said. “All the four corners and some of the big monuments of Arizona and places that I don’t think many of us get to because of the distance off the roads. He captures that. I like his photography; I always have.”
To those who would like to learn from a master, James teaches workshops next year across Arizona and New Mexico for Arizona Highways PhotoScapes; in the Palouse, a picturesque area in SOUTHeast Washington State; and in the Swiss Alps. He’s also planning small group custom photo safaris to Scotland, Greece, Italy and Chile.
“Photography is perfectly suited for learning on vacation, and digital has made mastering photo techniques much easier and faster as well,” he noted. “I think a show like this is about savoring the beauty of the state, but it’s also, for me, about thinking about saving it. When I first came to Arizona in the ’80s, we had about 2 million (population) in Arizona. Now we are at 7.56 or something like that. It’s putting the pressure on some of these great places.”
He stressed the need for care.
“It’s not that it’s a bad thing, we just have to be more careful about how we take care of what we have so we have it for our kids,” he said. “And that’s absolutely the sentiment that I want to convey.”
“Arizona Odyssey: Forty Years of Roaming for Beauty,” runs through March 5 at Gallery 4, HD SOUTH, 10 S. Gilbert Road,Gilbert.
Details: hdSOUTH.org and artinter-
section.com ■
the show together, advertise and hang the show.” ■
If You Go...
What: “Contemporary Wise Women Artists” Where: OneOhOne Gallery/Paige Artists Studio, 101 W. Main St., Mesa When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through Jan. 29. Cost: Free Info: oneohone101.com
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